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Nato: a history of the present
When the Warsaw Pact crumbled alongside the USSR, it would have made sense for Nato to disband too — but Nato was always about political control of the West, as well as defence from the East, explains KEITH FLETT

KEIR STARMER in part justified his warmongering over Ukraine by underlining that the 1945 Labour government was in 1949 one of the founding signatories of Nato.

Not welcomed by many on the left either then or now, it marked a significant moment in the cold war between the US and the USSR.

Although it was framed as a defensive alliance, it first came to life during the Korean war, one of a number of conflicts in the cold war that took place outside Europe.

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